1863: Lincoln’s Pivotal Year Harold Holzer (Editor) Sara Vaughn Gabbard (Editor) Contributors: Michael B. Ballard, Orville Vernon Burton, Catherine Clinton, William C. Davis, John F. Marszalek, Edna Greene Medford, Barnet Schechter, Craig L. Symonds, Frank J. Williams, Bob Zeller 216 pages, 6 x 9, 28 Illus., Hardcover SIU Press presents a nicely constructed portrait of the year 1863 with regard to Lincoln’s presidency and the nation. The book consists of…

Soldiering in the Army of Northern Virginia: A Statistical Portrait of the Troops Who Served Under Robert E. Lee by Joseph T. Glatthaar. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. ISBN: 0807834920. $50.00. Glatthaar tells us in the Preface to Soldiering in the Army of Northern Virginia that he believes that “Civil War scholarship that focuses on soldiers is stuck.” Continuing he states that as historians we have focused…

This book reveals W. Henry Oettiker a young Wisconsin farmer who left the wheat fields of the Wisconsin frontier and traveled 10,000 miles all through his Civil War journey. The diary takes up Oettiker’s experiences during the last stages of the Civil War to his enlistment and service on the Great Plains and western frontier. From 1865 to 1866 Oettiker traveled another 2,000 miles west; a journey that was full…

Unfortunately, the spiritual world of the Civil War soldier with regard to his religious beliefs has not often been the focus of historians. This is for various reasons and unfortunately many of them political; which I will not get into. But for a few exceptions before 2001 [Charles Reagan Wilson’s Baptized in Blood (1980); Randall Miller, Harry Stout, and Wilson’s Religion and the American Civil War (1998); for example] few modern…

The Valiant Soldier: The Civil War & Frontier Diary of W. Henry Oettiker Soldier Studies Voices, Vol. 1 Paperback includes photos, maps, illustrations 6×9, 132 pages ed. Christopher C. Wehner Soldier Studies is pleased to announce what will hopefully be the first in a series of books dealing with unique Civil War soldier diaries and letters. SoldierStudies.org founder, curator, and historian Chris Wehner edited the Civil War and frontier diary…

The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory The Black Hats from Bull Run to Appomattox and Thereafter Lance J. Herdegen Format: Hardcover, 696 pages Price: $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-61121-106-1 eBook: 978-1-61121-107-8 On Sale: September 2012 6×9, 124 b/w photos, 15 maps Lance J. Herdegen is the Award-winning author of Those Damned Black Hats!: The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign and is the former director of the Institute of Civil…

[Originally posted at my former site, Blog4History] For Country, Cause & Leader, The Civil War Journal of Charles B. Haydon, edited by Stephen W. Sears. A resident of Decatur, Michigan, Charles B. Haydon enlisted in early 1861 during the first rush to “defend the colors.” He joined the Kalamazoo Light Guards and ended up with the 2nd Michigan Infantry, Company I. His diary/journal is one of the more lucid, vivid,…

Charles J. LaRocca is a retired high school and college level history teacher who founded a student research and reenactment group based on the 124th New York. He has published articles and two books and lives in Montgomery, New York. His most recent work is The 124th New York State Volunteers in the Civil War: A History and Roster, which is really more than just a book for Mr. LaRocca,…

I just finished reading Charles J. LaRocca’s book The 124th New York State Volunteers in the Civil War: A History and Roster, (McFarland, 2012). An ancestor of mine, Charles Weygant wrote one of the better (19th Century) regimental histories in 1877 covering the regiment, but a modern updated history has been in order for some time and LaRocca nicely fills that need. The 124th took part in the some of…